OK. WE’VE STARTED OUR TRIP.
NOW, WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE WE GOING?
(The discovery of our Church’s Vision)
Hope Christian Church
Tamarac, Florida
January , 2004
Dr. David L. Haun
It has been almost ten months since we started our worship services here at Hope Christian. It has been a good ten months and a wonderful start of our trip. Attendance has grown, excitement is at a high level, new people are beginning to attend, and each week, God is being honored in our worship. The time has now come to begin to discover where it is God wants us to go from here. The Scripture makes it clear, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." (Proverbs 29:18 KJV) In January, we’re going to look at the map and determine where we as a church are going. It will be exciting to help develop Hope’s vision and goals. And it is a trip we all need to take.
In the New Testament, Jesus tells an interesting story: Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ’This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. Luke 14:28-33 (NIV)
I. CHURCHES THAT GROW ... KNOW ... WHAT THEY BLIEVE ... WHAT THEY DO ... WHAT THEY EXPECT.
1. Calvary Chapel, Fort Lauderdale
This congregation has 20 doctrinal statements that they follow as a church. (1 ) As I look them over, they aren’t much different than we here at Hope would believe. But those beliefs are known and stressed. So people can know what it is the church believes and decide if they choose to follow this vision.
2. Coral Ridge Presbyterian of Ft. Lauderdale -Their vision is clear: Every member able to share the Gospel in a simple, challenging way. (2)
3. First Baptist of Ft. Lauderdale - Reach out to Community - City Thanksgiving Dinner, City Christmas Pageant.
4, Smaller congregations also can "know". Ft. Lauderdale First Christian in the 1950’s. Their goal: Reach the youth of our community and inspire and lead their commitment to Christ. In some 15 years, this church had 14 young men and women commit to enter the Christian ministry.
You see, when we "know" our vision, can understand our direction, can verbalize our purpose, then we can and I believe, will grow.
The fear we sometimes feel: If we seriously say "this is what we believe and what we do," people will reject us. That’s true, some will. The fear is real. Some will say, Oh, I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to make that kind of commitment."
There will be individual congregations that even being strong in their faith won’t appeal to others. However, as we look at church history, church growth occurs when the church family know what they believe, are clear in the way they share, and strive to fulfill their vision. And people who do join these churches clear who they are, tend to be strong in their faithfulness.
II. IF WE FAIL TO TAKE THE STEPS NECESSARY TO UNDERSTAND GOD’S "MAP," WE MAY MISS GOD’S INTENTION.
A. We could be looking at the wrong things and miss God’s obvious leading and desire for Hope
A story is told of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock and Dr. Watson have gone camping, pitched their tent under the stars and gone to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night, Holmes awakens Watson. "Watson, look up at the stars and tell me what you deduce." Watson says, "I see millions of stars, and if even a few of those have planets, it’s quite likely there are some planets like Earth, and if there are a few planets like Earth out there, there might also be life." Holmes replies, "Watson, don’t be blind. What you deduce is that somebody stole our tent!" (3 )
You’ve heard the statement "you can’t see the forest for the trees." That can happen in the church. We can become so wrapped up in the "important" tasks of the church that we don’t recognize God’s "essential" tasks. It’s vital for us to come to understand God’s intended direction for Hope.
B. We’ll begin to evaluate our successes in ways God may not see as major importance.
1. Attendance - Numbers are important, and we count people because people count. But there is more to God’s vision than attendance. And if we don’t understand, continually remind ourselves, and remember God’s road map for Hope, then we can make attendance (and this can be a serious trap for me) a more important goal than it should be.
2. Building (size, style, etc.) A friend of mine was the founding pastor of a Church in Washington State. When church growth resulted in crowded facilities, the question was raised whether or not to build a new church building. The leadership’s prayer was simple: "God, if this feeling to build a new church is in your will, we want to do it. If not, we don’t". The church prayed for a number of months for God to clarify his will. They finally recognized how to know if building a new building was God’s intention. So they began a major time of prayer, and on one Sunday morning, in one offering, the congregation donated over a million dollars in cash. And the church knew they were following God’s road map
3. Stress programs. Sometimes churches fall into the trap of thinking "if we’re busy, we’re spiritual." However, programs for the sake of programs soon drain a church family’s strength and commitment for the more important desires of God.
4. Seek community position or prestige. It’s important as Christians to have positive reputations. However, prestige can become a god, and the Holy Spirit may have a different intention for that congregation.
C. We may find ourselves drawing people with "different" agendas, goals and lifestyles from what God would choose for us.
A pastor, John Wimberly, served a Presbyterian Church, which over the years developed a ministry of feeding, clothing and helping the needy. It became one important part of their church life. However, the ministry never was recognized as part of the church’s total vision or calling.
The church was located in the shadow of a World Bank building. The bank decided to expand and offered the church millions of dollars for their church property. (We might think that if suddenly we were given a couple of million dollars to use here at Hope, it would solve all our problems. Wrong!)
As Rev. Wimberly told it, a church doesn’t just go out and spend those millions on a new building until it decides how best the building can be used. Their problem was that the church membership was not unified in helping the needy being a major part of Christ’s vision for their church. Their differences in opinion as to how God would desire his church to grow led to serious conflict, going so far as persons carrying picket signs on the church steps . The conflict was eventually solved. However, not until the church gave prayerful and serious attention to what their church’s vision should be. (4)
III. VISION STATEMENTS AND GOAL TARGETS MUST BE CLEAR AND POSITIVE IN WORD AND UNDERSTANDING.
What is your vision? What do you see God leading Hope to be five years from now? What do you imagine us doing? Where do you envision us meeting? What will be our major ministry emphasis? What are our goals and visions? What is God’s desire for us?
Then, how do we today, begin the steps that will achieve those visions?
A. Benjamin Franklin kept his life in constant evaluation by asking himself two questions every day of his adult life. In the morning he would ask, "What good shall I do today?" This was followed up by his evening question, "What good have I done today?" Mr. Franklin understood Socrates’ warning, "The unexamined life is not worth living," yet he carried it a step further to add, neither is the unplanned life worth living. ( 5 )
B. There is a cost to following Christ. It’s not a joyride. It’s not a free ticket to health and wealth. And people earnest in their search for Christ recognize that truth. A promise of cheap faith will not draw people who are serious in their faith
Peter Marshall, who until his untimely death in 1949, was recognized as one of America’s great preachers. He served as pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, and served as Chaplain of the US Senate. In a book he wrote titled Mr. Jones, Meet the Master, he offered this prayer: "Give us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for, because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything." ( 6 )
IV. THE VISION WE DEVELOP AND THE WAY WE FULFILL IT MUST FIT GOD’S VISION AND WAY.
A. Pray - I challenge each of us here at Hope to undertake a most important activity. Every day, starting today, I challenge us to offer a plea to God. Here is the prayer: "God, show us at Hope your way." This prayer is short enough to offer while you stick your key in the car ignition. It can be prayed while you fill your glass at the refrigerator. You and I can pray it silently as we walk down the hall at work toward the rest room. Just think. We have about 50 people here today. Think of the power of 50 people praying that prayer three, four or five times a day. James explained how we are to pray:
"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does." James 1:5-8 (NIV)
The author, Henry Blackaby, in his book Knowing and Doing the Will of God, says that what we need do is prayerfully look for ways where God is doing things, and join him. (7)
B. Learn - There is a Training Opportunity coming here at Hope Christian.
We are blessed to have our Associate Regional Minister coming here to hope one weekend in each of the next three months. Betsy is coming to help us move through the process of determining God’s vision for our future direction as a new and growing congregation.
She is coming for four sessions:
For this Vision Quest to truly succeed, many of us here at Hope need to be part the searching. So, it’s up to us to pray.
It’s up to us to study in the ways Betsy leads us.
It’s up to us to commit our time on those three weekends to attend and be part of the searching. Will you do that? Will you come and grow with us in Christ as we learn his will for our church?
From 1923 to 1955, Robert Woodruff was the president of Coca-Cola. After World War II he led the company to adopt his goal. Woodruff’s goal was succinctly stated, "During my lifetime I want every person in the world to taste Coca-Cola." If one man can dream about the world tasting Coke, shouldn’t Christians pursue a similar goal of providing the opportunity for everyone to taste "Living Water?" ( 8 )
Where in the world are we going? Come and help us discover God’s answer to our search.
FOOTNOTES
( 1 ) http://www.calvaryftl.org/
( 2 ) Printed on the wall at Coral Ridge Presbyterian ( 3 ) Russell Brownworth, Cedar Lodge Baptist Church, Thomasville, North Carolina, Sermon Central.Com.
( 4 ) Joseph Smith. "The World Demands a Life-Giving Vision" Sermon Central.com (5 ) Pastor’s Update, Fuller Institute, January 1992, p. 4)
( 6 ) Peter Marshall in Mr. Jones, Meet The Master, Christianity Today-Vol. 34, pp1-ff
( 7 ) Blackaby, Henry. Knowing and Doing the Will of God. Nashville, Tenn. Lifeway Press. 1982.
( 8 ) Maxwell, John. Injoy Life. Tape Vol 7/No 4, Autoillustrator.Com.
